Tropical Forests and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – A Reality?
Sustainable development and the conservation of forests and biodiversity are synonymous. The tropical forests, as developmental agents, contribute to achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through current examples of their role in contributing to food and energy security, job creation, integration and coherence in policy-making, and acting as the world's lungs. It highlights the synergies and trade-offs between SFs and each of the SDGs and the impact of policy in determining and nurturing them. The relations between tropical forests and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are complex, highlighting both the immense potential and the significant challenges in realizing these goals.
Tropical forests and their resources have had a complex but underappreciated role in human societies for over 10,000 years. Tropical forests cover approximately 7% of the Earth's land area, yet they host over 50% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. They are instrumental in several SDGs due to their multifaceted benefits. As a third formalization of the concept of sustainable development, the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), known as the 2030 Agenda, were adopted at the UN General Assembly in 2015. The new goals emphasize the urgency to support future ecosystem services that are vital to human development: support for food security, water, health, and climate change, as well as gender equality, energy access, and inclusive societies.
Tropical forests and their resources have had a complex but underappreciated role in human societies for over 10,000 years. Tropical forests cover approximately 7% of the Earth's land area, yet they host over 50% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. They are instrumental in several SDGs due to their multifaceted benefits. As a third formalization of the concept of sustainable development, the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), known as the 2030 Agenda, were adopted at the UN General Assembly in 2015. The new goals emphasize the urgency to support future ecosystem services that are vital to human development: support for food security, water, health, and climate change, as well as gender equality, energy access, and inclusive societies.
Forests and related activities are linked to targets associated with 12 of the 17 SDGs, which cover principles of action related to ending poverty, ensuring food security, providing accessible and sustainable energy for all, sustainably managing natural resources, combating climate change and protecting ecosystems, revitalizing sustainable human communities, advancing synergistic partnerships to mobilize and share knowledge, and finally, leaving no one behind. Usually presented as an action list and associated with 169 solutions, the SDGs rely on broad, cross-cutting principles to achieve unprecedented ambition.
Few non-industrial natural tropical forests are managed sustainably enough to have a real impact on the local population's well-being and to support the achievement of these 17 SDGs. Deforestation and land degradation are the primary driving forces that cause the conversion of tropical forests into mixed material, often short-lived agriculture, and, with highly speculative economics, high capital expenditure of finance. The restoration of the region's forest cover is part of the recovery of certain of these ecosystems, but also concerns the sustainability and integrity of charismatic species, the ecological processes that the conservation of these processes preserves the diversity and functionality of these natural tropical forests. This results in what we often call conservation objectives. These conservation objectives generally involve protecting large areas (in the design of large protected areas). Still, they also include conserving ecosystems that have been altered for many generations by people living in them in buffer zones or limited areas of interaction.
As a result, conservation policies around the world tend to call for prohibitions on activities such as selective logging, an anthropised income source that can harm the natural tropical forest ecosystems. Currently, there is a growing awareness that careful management of this logging, which provides resources for human needs as well as value-added, is necessary to finance conservation—by convincing the 60 million people living in the humid tropics to comply or to enforce land use planning laws and regulations, which are frequently violated.
Few non-industrial natural tropical forests are managed sustainably enough to have a real impact on the local population's well-being and to support the achievement of these 17 SDGs. Deforestation and land degradation are the primary driving forces that cause the conversion of tropical forests into mixed material, often short-lived agriculture, and, with highly speculative economics, high capital expenditure of finance. The restoration of the region's forest cover is part of the recovery of certain of these ecosystems, but also concerns the sustainability and integrity of charismatic species, the ecological processes that the conservation of these processes preserves the diversity and functionality of these natural tropical forests. This results in what we often call conservation objectives. These conservation objectives generally involve protecting large areas (in the design of large protected areas). Still, they also include conserving ecosystems that have been altered for many generations by people living in them in buffer zones or limited areas of interaction.
As a result, conservation policies around the world tend to call for prohibitions on activities such as selective logging, an anthropised income source that can harm the natural tropical forest ecosystems. Currently, there is a growing awareness that careful management of this logging, which provides resources for human needs as well as value-added, is necessary to finance conservation—by convincing the 60 million people living in the humid tropics to comply or to enforce land use planning laws and regulations, which are frequently violated.
Tropical forests are essential to achieving the SDGs, offering critical ecosystem services, supporting livelihoods, and contributing to climate stability. However, they face significant challenges such as persistent deforestation and degradation, climate change impacts, weak governance and management, economic pressures, and lack of global and local cooperation. Given these persistent challenges, transforming the vision of tropical forests as a cornerstone of sustainable development into reality remains uncertain and requires substantial and sustained efforts across multiple fronts. Can we ensure that tropical forests continue to thrive and support global sustainable development goals? Can the vision of tropical forests as a cornerstone of sustainable development shift from a hopeful ideal to a tangible reality?
References
Ravikumar, A., Sears, R.R., Cronkleton, P., Menton, M. and Pérez-Ojeda del Arco, M .(2017). Is small-scale agriculture really the main driver of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon? Moving beyond the prevailing narrative. Conserv Lett 10(2):170–177.
Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V. et al. (2012). An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. Environmental Resource Letters 7:044009.
FAO. (2022). The State of the World’s Forests 2022: Forest pathways for green recovery and building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from FAO (26 July 2024).
Seymour, F. and Busch, J. (2017). Why forests? Why now? The science, economics and politics of tropical forests and climate change. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.
References
Ravikumar, A., Sears, R.R., Cronkleton, P., Menton, M. and Pérez-Ojeda del Arco, M .(2017). Is small-scale agriculture really the main driver of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon? Moving beyond the prevailing narrative. Conserv Lett 10(2):170–177.
Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V. et al. (2012). An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. Environmental Resource Letters 7:044009.
FAO. (2022). The State of the World’s Forests 2022: Forest pathways for green recovery and building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from FAO (26 July 2024).
Seymour, F. and Busch, J. (2017). Why forests? Why now? The science, economics and politics of tropical forests and climate change. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.
